Electrical connector assemblies have long been used in environments that are harmful to the contacts. In these environments, the electrical connection between contacts can fail, causing the device in which the connector assemblies are used to also fail. In order to provide a more reliable electrical connection, seals have been applied to the connectors, to isolate the contacts from the harsh environments. These types of sealed connectors have proven beneficial in certain environments and with certain types of cable connectors.
The use of power and/or signal connections in outdoor message centers and video scoreboards are applications in which the environment can effect the reliability of the electrical connection between components. A large message center or video screen can have many individual screens or pixels that act together to form the overall image. These pixels must be interconnected and have both power and signal delivered thereto to perform properly. As these message centers and video scoreboards are outdoors, it is obvious that environment factors such as moisture must be accounted for in order for the electrical connection to be reliably maintained over time. To date, many of the pixels have had sealed boxes attached to the back thereof, in which the electrical components were housed. The boxes were sealed, and cables would extend between the sealed boxes. However, the sealing of these boxes can be expensive and can make for difficult maintenance issues. It would, therefore, be beneficial to provide sealed cable assemblies, thereby reducing the need to have sealed boxes. As the cable assemblies required for operation of the pixels requires multiple signal and power feeds, the use of ribbon cable assemblies and/or cable assemblies with multiple cables is advantageous. To date, it has been difficult to provide such cable assemblies with the appropriate sealing to withstand the harsh environmental conditions.
Additionally, as the message boards and video scoreboards are made of many pixels, the cost of the electrical components can be significant. The components include the cable assemblies and the circuit boards that control the operation of the pixel. In order to perform properly, the circuit boards must have numerous components mounted thereon, which causes the circuit boards to be relatively large and expensive. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a connector assembly, and in particular a circuit board header, which could reliably mount, both physically and electrically, to the circuit board in less space than traditional connectors, thereby freeing space for other components and ultimately allowing for the reduction in size and expense of the circuit board.